Portrait help

[Colin Southern]

Well that's a bit of a difference!

I hope so, although to be honest there were a couple of problems in that the light was a bit too contrasty (so I've had to reduce the exposure more than I wanted to retain some detail), and I'm not really sure what her skin tones should look like (I've been caught out before with similar things).

[Mushi]

Colin thx for what u did to the pic that what i wanted...i will start buying the list u gave me... hope to improve with time.. thx again

[Colin Southern]

Colin thx for what u did to the pic that what i wanted...i will start buying the list u gave me... hope to improve with time.. thx again

You're welcome Mushi

PS: "thx" is spelt "thanks" and "u" is spelt "you"

[Dave Humphries]

Colin thx for what u did to the pic that what i wanted...i will start buying the list u gave me... hope to improve with time.. thx again

Hi Mushi,

Could you advise what camera system you are using? Canon, Nikon, Sony, etc. and what model? - thanks.

It may/should influence what you buy, especially the flash gun.

Welcome to the CiC forums from ...

[Mushi]

PS: I've given your image a Photoshop 30-Second Makeover (TM!) ...

- Corrected exposure

- Corrected black clipping point

- Crop

- Retouched bright area on (camera) right side of nose

- Adjusted eye levels

Hope you like

OK Colin
I have another Q
you said: you corrected exposure..
before taking that photo the exposure level mark was reading 0 which means the exposure is fine right??..
my Q is : is there anything else can tell me about the correct exposure???
thanks

[Mushi]

Am using canon 450d with kit lens and 55-250 mm. any advise about portrait lenses?
thanks

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Mushi (is that your first name?),

you said: you corrected exposure..
before taking that photo the exposure level mark was reading 0 which means the exposure is fine right??..

Well, it means the camera thought it was right at the time, but the problem is: machines don't always get things right.

Humans, despite there ability to also make mistakes, can subjectively understand what a picture is of and determine far better which parts need to be a certain level. The camera doesn't understand the picture, it just tries to make some kind of average of the pictures overall brightness a certain level.

I know English isn't your first language, but try having a read of this tutorial on camera metering and exposure.

Thanks for advising your camera brand and model, as it turns out, the Canon 580EX II would be good for you, but it is quite expensive.

Cheers,

[PopsPhotos]

It is true that ceiling bounce can give "racoon eyes" and unwanted light angles, if the flash is the primary light. however, when the primary light source is not the flash, as in this portrait, a ceiling bounce can be desirable. That is why it is so important to look at your light angles and strengths when figuring out where to place your flash. Or, even, whether to use flash at all.

Pops

[Colin Southern]

OK Colin
I have another Q
you said: you corrected exposure..
before taking that photo the exposure level mark was reading 0 which means the exposure is fine right??..
my Q is : is there anything else can tell me about the correct exposure???
thanks

Hi Mushi,

There's really two different things to be discussed here; the first is the actual exposure captured by the camera, and the second is the adjustment of the apparent exposure during post processing.

Actual exposure captured by the camera:

Often the camera can do an excellent job of working out what that exposure should be, but often also, it needs a helping hand to shift the exposure up or down a little. I won't go into extreme detail just yet because this post would end up being a full chapter long, but in the case of the shot you took, you'll see a large triangular area on the right hand side (camera right) of the young lady'sd nose that - although not (quite) blown out - none-the-less lacks any detail. In other words you have almost white skin in an area where the skin should look more tanned.

Adjustment of apparent exposure:

When adjusting your image I brought the exposure back a full stop, but even that didn't entirely fix the problem area -- so I blended in some skin tone from her forehead. It's still not a perfect result, but I think it looks a lot better.

I suspect that what's happened here is that the light coming through the window to the lady's right has reflected off the skin in that area, and bounced back towards the camera giving the large hot spot. The way to have cured that at the time you took the shot would have been to use a diffuser to greatly soften the light ... then the rest of the capture would have fallen into place quite nicely on this occasion.

So there's your first task - go buy a diffuser; they're pretty cheap and they can make a BIG difference to the shot. If you have someone who can hold it for you then that's all you need to start with -- if you don't then eventually you'll need to get a holder + boom arm + stand to hold it.

Here's a shot of how I used a diffuser for one of the shots above: (Click for larger view - for some reason it's only showing in a small size)

original.jpg

[Mushi]

Hi Mushi (is that your first name?),



Well, it means the camera thought it was right at the time, but the problem is: machines don't always get things right.

Humans, despite there ability to also make mistakes, can subjectively understand what a picture is of and determine far better which parts need to be a certain level. The camera doesn't understand the picture, it just tries to make some kind of average of the pictures overall brightness a certain level.

I know English isn't your first language, but try having a read of this tutorial on camera metering and exposure.

Thanks for advising your camera brand and model, as it turns out, the Canon 580EX II would be good for you, but it is quite expensive.

Cheers,

My first name is Salim..
thank you for the tutorial. It helped alot.. i will read it again nd again till i understand everything..

[Mushi]

Hi Mushi,

There's really two different things to be discussed here; the first is the actual exposure captured by the camera, and the second is the adjustment of the apparent exposure during post processing.

Actual exposure captured by the camera:


Often the camera can do an excellent job of working out what that exposure should be, but often also, it needs a helping hand to shift the exposure up or down a little. I won't go into extreme detail just yet because this post would end up being a full chapter long, but in the case of the shot you took, you'll see a large triangular area on the right hand side (camera right) of the young lady'sd nose that - although not (quite) blown out - none-the-less lacks any detail. In other words you have almost white skin in an area where the skin should look more tanned.

Adjustment of apparent exposure:

When adjusting your image I brought the exposure back a full stop, but even that didn't entirely fix the problem area -- so I blended in some skin tone from her forehead. It's still not a perfect result, but I think it looks a lot better.

I suspect that what's happened here is that the light coming through the window to the lady's right has reflected off the skin in that area, and bounced back towards the camera giving the large hot spot. The way to have cured that at the time you took the shot would have been to use a diffuser to greatly soften the light ... then the rest of the capture would have fallen into place quite nicely on this occasion.

So there's your first task - go buy a diffuser; they're pretty cheap and they can make a BIG difference to the shot. If you have someone who can hold it for you then that's all you need to start with -- if you don't then eventually you'll need to get a holder + boom arm + stand to hold it.

Here's a shot of how I used a diffuser for one of the shots above: (Click for larger view - for some reason it's only showing in a small size)

original.jpg

thank you Colin i think i got what u meant

[Maritimer1]

Hello Salim,

What an expressive and beautiful little girl.
Just wanted to mention that you might like to check all the good information that was passed on to me a couple of weeks ago in this post: Portrait help, please? Lots of good advice!


Myra

[Mushi]

Hi Myra,

I read what you posted there and I liked the way you took these photos ... I read your post 2 or 3 times ... I gain a lot of info there thanks.